Muscles bunched and tightened as Reën made his way slowly down the bank. Who knew how long it had been since Reën had had a proper meal (he sure didn't) but he was determined to get it today. The sun bounced its shining yellow rays down on the brown pond in front of him. The bright light sparkled as the sun reflected, his eyes narrowed at the glare, that of which he couldn't stand. He turned his head to the side avoiding the blinding light, even the heat had now wormed its way down into his fur and under his skin.

He gazed into the body of water, murky it was, and quite ominous. He licked his lip as he started to move closer to the water. Reën moved his body forward and put one paw into the shallow water and waded ankle deep. 'Oh dear,' he thought to himself. This was certainly something he would have to watch out for. A movement of a log caught his eye making him jump from the water and leap up onto one of the higher rocks. His heart thumped against his chest as he took long hard breaths.

Alligators were his worst enemy, getting caught by the alligator was sure death, with the large reptiles swimming around Reën couldn't even trust the comfort of his own watering hole. He licked his dried lip and began his decent back down to the shore. So far he hadn't actually seen one of the large horrible beasts in the brown water, and trust you me, he was looking, and he needed something to drink and eat… he'd have to take his chances. He moved nimbly one paw after another, his brow furrowed into a deep 'V' waiting.

"Tut, Nay, I'm god! No Alligator can catch me!" he whispered to himself, couldn't talk to loud or make much noise around here, any thing could happen. Reën grinned meekly to himself, half believing what he was telling himself and half not so much. He slithered behind some mangroves making sure as to not be seen by anything odd.

Reën tensed his muscles and cast his shadow down into the water, any thing that saw the shadow would run off, even the fish. He then batted his paws frantically at the water to ward off any thing else and then reached down to snatch up a quick drink. Any normal cat would have run off already, only drinking as much as they need and running off, but he was enjoying himself. Reën took a breath and then sunk his head under water. He opened his eyes and looked around, it was hard to see anything in the mud, but he saw no shadows in the depths, as he drew back he realized how much the dirt ridden water really stung his eyes.

He gave an angered grunt. Reën had been angered lately almost too often, he hadn't been able to sit and have a nice conversation with any cat… there just weren't any others any where near around. He half hoped that cats without a home would come in and try to be a part of his little clan, but he knew that he'd either kill them, being to self centered to realize that he really did need the cats, or the disease would kill them off first.

A small annoyed grunt escaped his tightly clenched lips as he shook his face dry. The less then humid, dry summer day had already started to do so, clumping his fur and making it rough. He licked his paw and swiped it quickly over his face. He then proceeded to lick his chest and back, he looked good for a sickly, scrawny, festering cat of IlowangaClan.

Suddenly a golden-brown spark lit up, upstream a bit. Reën's eyes flashed with a spark of delight. His lips trembled in anxiety, anticipation and whatnot. His back haunches twitched and his ears flicked upwards. He felt his claws unsheathe and his attention went back to the fish swimming down to him now. He let his paw dangle dangerously over the water. He had once chance to get the fish, there weren't that many fish any more, and one was a rare find.

The succulent dinner made him forget all about the threat that remained in the water, lurking, watching. His eye's had failed to keep alert, and his ears were trained on the splashing of a single fish, it didn't catch him until large, white, rows of teeth shot from the water bespattering the cool liquid upon his fur of gold. His heart hesitated, skipping a beat but his muscles reacted in perfect sync moving him out of the way of the giant jaws.

His heart pounded as he sprawled his legs backwards, moving, and shuffling. The Alligator wasn't through with the stunned creature. Reën scattered, his tail between his back legs and his eyes wide in fear. His pupils dilated causing the direct sunlight to burn his eyes. He hissed and scrambled further back as the Alligator walked up onto the ground in front of him.

Reën hissed, scratching wildly with his claws. He glanced around and darted to a tree that grew on the muddy riverbank. He jumped up and climbed onto a limb that dangled over the water. He looked in seeing fish swim back and forth, making his mouth drool, but he couldn't! No, he wasn't going to risk his life and jump into the water. The alligator below him hissed and made his fur prickle on end before it wandered back to the water and slid in gracefully.

"See!" He mewed thinking himself large and grand. He leapt out of the tree smiling and puffing his chest out and fluffing his tail. "No alligator can catch me!" he shouted, this time not caring if he was very loud or not. "I'm Malik Reën!" he grunted becoming very egotistical. "And I am the best there is!"